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According to a new study, some abnormalities of teeth can be attributed to dietary habits. The relation is more obvious among people living in industrial communities. The study was carried out by a team of anthropologists from the University of Kent. Researchers say that a soft diet could have resulted in a too short or too small jaw relative to tooth size.

Dr Noreen von Cramon-Taubadel, from the University's School of Anthropology and Conservation, and her team conducted the study. They assessed a long-debated hypothesis regarding the effect of diet by saying that the change from a hunter-gatherer human life style to a more agricultural one had a negative impact on the human jaws and skull.

The research team made comparisons between skulls and mandibles of 11 globally distributed populations against different models of genetic, geographic, climatic and dietary variations. It was noted that the shape of lower jaw, along with the shape of the upper palate, seemed to be connected to dietary habits. On the other hand, the shape of the skull appeared to be more connected to genetic variations.

The authors report that the lower jaw shape provided an indication whether the population was more hunter-gatherer or agriculturalist in its life style. Chewing manner was thought to account for the growth and development of different subsistence groups. The comparison showed that hunter-gather populations had longer and narrower lower jaws. This means that teeth had more space for normal eruption. In contrast, agriculturalists mainly had shorter and broader lower jaws which increased the potential for tooth crowding.

Dr. Von Cramon-Taubadel commented on the study. She said “Chewing behavior appears to cause the lower jaw to develop differently in hunter-gatherer versus farming populations, and this holds true at a global level. What is interesting, is that the rest of the skull is not affected in the same way and seems to more closely match our genetic history.”